The present disclosure relates generally to alarm management in medical devices, and in particular to a system and method for improving the clinical significance of alarms.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Alarm management in medical facilities is drawing attention as an important aspect of medical care. Alarms are generated by many types of medical devices, including monitoring devices (for example, capnography monitors, pulse oximeters, heart rate monitors, and others) and therapeutic devices (for example, ventilators, infusion pumps, and others). These medical devices generate alarms based on patient conditions, device status, and stored alarm algorithms. The purpose of these alarms is to alert caregivers when the patient's condition may be deteriorating, in case medical intervention is needed, or when the medical device may not be operating properly. The alarm system may result in a greater probability of detection and response to medical conditions that would benefit from awareness or action on the part of the caregiver.
Nuisance alarms—alarms that do not correspond to a clinically significant event—are of concern in many medical facilities. Nuisance alarms may be caused by false readings by the medical equipment, or by conservative or sub-optimal alarm algorithms that trigger when the patient's physiological condition has not changed in a significant way. Nuisance alarms resulting from false positive alarm conditions may reduce the overall effectiveness of an alarm system. Certain techniques may mitigate or reduce the occurrence of nuisance alarms. For example, rather than triggering alarms based on conventional alarm settings, which are dependent on the instantaneous excursions of a measured value outside a range, alarms may instead be delayed until a deviation has occurred that is either sufficiently large or sufficiently long relative to an alarm threshold value. In this manner, certain types of alarms, e.g., momentary small value changes that return quickly to normal, may be suppressed. However, certain clinicians may wish to have more granularity in alarm sensitivity while also reducing nuisance alarms.